Established in 2006, the Keystone State Education Coalition is a growing grass roots, non-partisan public education advocacy group of several hundred locally elected, volunteer school board members and administrators from school districts throughout Pennsylvania. Our mission is to evaluate, discuss and inform our boards, district constituents and legislators on legislative issues of common interest and to facilitate active engagement in public education advocacy.

Asst. Superintendent. Bowes' email began by saying "we must berelentlessin our efforts to help pass school choice this year. I am asking you to inform parents that have received tuition assistance that they must contact their legislators and return the contact form attached to you in order to receive a grantnext year. I then want you to return these contact forms to me. This way we can insure that a solid effort is being carried out by our diocese."Pittsburgh Diocese 'corrects' tuition letter

Assistance not contingent on lobbying of legislators

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

By Mackenzie Carpenter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Principals in the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh were told last month that parents who received tuition assistance had to lobby state legislators to pass a school voucher bill -- and document it -- or lose their funding.

A September 29, 1995 Post Gazette notice recognized Dr. Bowes as the diocesan spokesperson for then Governor Ridge's voucher plan and a board member of the.REACH Foundation, a leading proponent of school choice. He still serves on the REACH board of directors.

Not even WPIAL's elite can elude state's ax

ByJeremy Boren, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, November 26, 2011 No matter which high school wins Saturday night's WPIAL Class AAAA football championship at Heinz Field, neither one looks much like a loser. Upper St. Clair and North Allegheny are at the top of Pennsylvania's academically elite public school districts with dominant standardized math, reading, science and writing test scores, comfortable class sizes, negligible dropout rates and affluent communities.

But school board members from the two Allegheny County districts worry that maintaining or deepening cuts to state education subsidies could jeopardize their off-field statistics, make property tax increases unavoidable and endanger extracurricular activities.

"The Philadelphia students said they liked Harriton's library - some of them have no libraries at their schools - and the fact that every student gets his or her own laptop. They liked all the languages, all the AP courses, all the activities and creative outlets offered at Harriton."

"The Supreme Court, in reversing a 2009 Commonwealth Court order, ruled that school districts do not have to reimburse cyber charter schools for 4-year-old kindergarten pupils if the district doesn't offer kindergarten education for 4-year-olds."

PA Supreme Court limits 4-year-old cyber tuition payments

A state Supreme Court decision issued this week could save area school districts some money by reducing kindergarten tuition costs to cyber charter schools.

The Supreme Court, in reversing a 2009 Commonwealth Court order, ruled that school districts do not have to reimburse cyber charter schools for 4-year-old kindergarten pupils if the district doesn't offer kindergarten education for 4-year-olds.

Slippery Rock Area challenged the state Department of Education over a $1,716 payment to Midland-based Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School for a 4-year-old kindergarten student in 2006.

The $2,400 annual property-tax bill on the house that Howard Blackson Jr. and his daughter own on Mulberry Lane in Darby Borough, Delaware County, would be typical of a $200,000 house in Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County.

Finland puts bar high for teachers, kids' well-being

By Erin Richards of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Nov. 26, 2011

Over the past decade, students in Finland have soared on international measures of achievement. They've continued to post some of the best scores in the developed world in reading, math and science, according to a respected international exam. The country has one of the narrowest gaps in achievement between its highest and lowest-performing schools, and on average spends less per pupil than the United States.

Here's the national voucher agenda – get the camel's nose under the tent; sell them as "a lifeline for poor kids in failing schools" and then expand them to everyone….think it won't happen here?

Ohio Lawmakers Devise New Way to Screw Public Schools

Cleveland scene magazine

Grumpy voters who defeated more than half of all school levies on the ballot in Ohio earlier this month aren't going to be happy to learn about the legislature's latest gimmick to yank school funding and necessitate — yes! — still more levies.

It recently introduced HB 136, which would make vouchers to attend private schools — currently promoted as a lifeline for poor kids in failing school systems — available in all Ohio school districts to families with incomes up to $95,000. The amount of each voucher, ranging from $3,500 to nearly $5,800, would be subtracted from the home district's state funding.

About Me

Mark Twain: "God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board."
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School Director, School District of Haverford Township, since 1999;
Chairman, Delaware County School Boards Legislative Council;
Founder and Co-Chair, Southeastern Pennsylvania School Districts’ Education Coalition/Keystone State Education Coalition, Board of Directors, PA School Boards Assocation
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